Recently, there has been an outbreak of a typical pneumonia in Guangdong province in mainland China. Between November 2002 and March 2003, there were 792 reported cases with 31 fatalities (WHO. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Weekly Epidemiol Rec. 2003; 78: 86). In response to this crisis, the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong has increased the surveillance on patients with severe atypical pneumonia. In the course of this investigation, a number of clusters of health care workers with the disease were identified. In addition, there were clusters of pneumonia incidents among persons in close contact with those infected. The disease was unusual in its severity and its progression in spite of the antibiotic treatment typical for the bacterial pathogens that are known to be commonly associated with atypical pneumonia. The disease was given the acronym Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (“SARS”). The virus was isolated from the patients suffering from SARS in the recent outbreak of severe atypical pneumonia in China. The isolated virus is an enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus of positive polarity which belongs to the order, Nidovirales, of the family, Coronaviridae. The hSARS virus was deposited with China Center for Type Culture Collection (CCTCC) on Apr. 2, 2003 and accorded an accession number, CCTCC-V200303, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The etiologic agent responsible for this disease is a novel coronavirus known as hSARS virus. The viral genome sequence taken together with the epidemiological evidence suggest that the SARS associated coronavirus (SCoV) crossed the species barrier from animals to humans in the recent past.